Students and faculty

SCIENCE AND FAITH CLUB

Most college students are asleep at 6:55 a.m., but six students are bucking that trend on a Friday morning.

They, along with a biology professor, have claimed some couches outside of the faculty offices on the second floor of the Science and Technology Center. Chloe Hansum, a junior biology and environmental science major, sets a box of donuts from Casey’s Bakery on the coffee table.

“Help yourself!” she says cheerily. She settles into a blue chair, grabs her laptop, and pulls up a National Geographic article about living tree bridges in India. This is Donuts and Discussion, an event held by the Science and Faith Club.

Everyone is wide awake as Hansum dives into the discussion.

“The living bridges are rubber trees whose roots intertwine to make steellike structures and bridges. The author talks about how creation impacts culture and how the native people have a relationship with creation. I guess we can start with a quote: ‘Creation moves us.’ Why do you think creation moves us? And how does God fit into that?”

Dr. Jeff Ploegstra ('99), a biology professor, mentions how, when we’re in the wild places, nature can praise God independently of humanity—”nature doesn’t exist strictly for us, and that causes us to push outside of our sense of self-importance.” A student mentions how often Dordt professors and students

“I appreciate how Dordt professors stress that science and faith are connected together and that God is sovereign over all, including science,” says Hansum.

SARAH MOSS ( '10 )

and Faith Club. They have had a panel discussion and film screening about climate action; she and other students also attended a leadership conference on the subject. And, later this spring, Hansum and the Science and Faith Club will bring April Cordero Maskiewicz, a biology professor at Point Loma University and a respected voice on climate action, to campus.

“There is a perceived conflict of science and faith, but I think we can be strong Christians and have sound science,” says Hansum. “These two things are connected deeply.”

talk about nature and creation—“here at Dordt, we try to emphasize what it means to connect with God through nature, and that’s something I never experienced growing up.” All the while, Hansum nods, encouraging others to speak up and share their thoughts. This year, Hansum and her co-leader, Victoria Kollbaum, have chosen to focus most of their Science and Faith Club events, including Donuts and Discussion, on topics related to creation care. While studying abroad on the Creation Care Program in New Zealand last semester, Hansum witnessed firsthand how environmental degradation has done irreparable damage. “While studying abroad on the Creation Care program, I saw a glacier that had melted. I saw coral that had been bleached,” she recalls. “Climate change is a huge problem we need to talk about, because God loves creation.” And that is the purpose of the Science and Faith Club—to provide students with a space where they might learn and grow together on topics related to science and faith. “Students are usually busy with homework and classes, so it often feels like there isn’t enough time to talk about these issues. But, with the Science and Faith Club, we want to create a space to talk about science and apply our faith,” says Hansum. Originally begun by Lydia Marcus (’17) and Biology Professor Dr. Robbin Eppinga several years ago, the Science and Faith Club was inactive until Hansum and another student brought it back last year. Now, the Science and Faith Club has about 60 members, 20 of whom regularly attend the club’s events. Gathering in the early morning hours of a Friday morning for Donuts and Discussion—to talk about land bridges in India and creation care— shows just how dedicated these students are to science and faith. “Often faculty and staff are given credit for making Dordt such a vibrant learning environment, but it’s the students, too,” says Eppinga. “Great things can happen when passionate students like Chloe are given a little direction and some donut money.” Hansum is considering the possibility of attending graduate school, perhaps to study marine biology.

COLOSSIANS FORUM Read about how the Science and Faith Club fostered civil discourse on science and faith through the Colossians Forum: dordt.edu/colossians.

FROM IOWA TO ITALY

In the "Dante and the Italian Renaissance" course, students spent 12 weeks studying on-campus and one week in January exploring Florence, Italy.

It’s unique to have a course co-taught by a history professor and an English professor. But what’s even more unique about the “Dante and the Italian Renaissance” course is that it culminates in a trip to Florence, Italy, known as the “cradle of the Renaissance,” where students experience fi rsthand what they learn in the classroom.

Between August and November, Dr. Walker Cosgrove, history professor, and Dr. Joshua Matthews, English professor, walked their class through the texts of writers like Petrarch and Alberti. They also looked at paintings, frescoes, architecture, and sculpture from the Renaissance. Then, Cosgrove and Matthews led students through the masterpiece that is Dante’s Divine Comedy.

“For Dante, theology, aesthetics, and politics are all combined,” says Matthews, “and we live them out every day. For students to see that on paper, but then to go to these real buildings where there is history, aesthetics, and theology all in the same place, is an incredible experience."

"Dante asks the basic questions of life,” Matthews adds. “Who am I? Why do I exist? What do I do with my life? Who is God? What happens to me when I die? These are questions students are asking—although maybe not out loud.”

During Christmas break, the students, Cosgrove, and Matthews fl ew to

JANNEKE DEBOER ('20)

“As I read through the students’ refl ections on the trip, I was surprised by how glowing they were. The students loved Florence,” says Matthews.

Florence. The group stayed in a hotel connected to a convent. As a class, they spent fi ve days in Florence, exploring the museums, churches, and historical monuments.

“The Renaissance was a Florentine phenomenon,” says Cosgrove. “Florence has Michelangelo’s David statue, the frescoes of Massachio’s Trinity on the walls of the Duomo. The earliest images of Dante’s Divine Comedy are even on those walls.”

Walking through the streets of Florence engages the fi ve senses, says Matthews. And, during free time, the students took every advantage to go sightseeing and explore.

“I wrote a research paper on the Duomo—a famous church—for the course, and I enjoyed being able to climb to the top of it in Florence,” says Trenton Ribbens, a senior engineering major.

“I heard students say, ‘I remember this in class, and now we’re here,’” says Cosgrove. “The number of students drawing connections between what we studied and what they saw made me feel like we must have done something right.”

“The trip to Florence was a wonderful opportunity to experience history in an entirely diff erent way,” says AJ Funk, a senior theology major. “Exploring the diff erent museums was surreal. It was one thing to learn about it in class, but it was nothing compared to the contextualization that seeing the paintings in person off ered.”

“Experiencing Florence gave me a new appreciation for the literature we read,” says Erika Buiter, a senior English major. “Professor Cosgrove and Professor Matthews did a great job of educating us as we explored the city.”

“We plan this trip a year ahead of time, encourage students to sign up, handle travel arrangements, and then start a new semester when we return,” says Matthews. “It’s certainly more work than a normal class, but in the end, it’s a labor of love.”

KATE HENRECKSON